ENGL 621: Story Assignment

Taxpayers may be seeing an increase in their taxes soon, as the Portsmouth School Board proposed a change in policy that would require students with disciplinary problems to return to school for a Saturday session.

The issue came up at the School Board’s meeting Monday evening, when board member Time Stele made a motion to approve this new policy.

With this change in policy, as Steele proposed it, the session would run from 8 a.m. until noon several weekends throughout the year for students. In order to fund this change, Steele estimates that an additional allocation of about $3,000 per year would be required to staff the session.

Immediately debate rose at the meeting, with some parents being concerned that a new session would only lead to higher taxpayers and additional hassle for parents on the weekends.

“I work six days a week – including Saturday morning – and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” Peggy Bacon, a parent who objected to the proposal, said. “Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well? Why do we need to change?”

According to Steele, the School Board has proposed this new disciplinary measure with in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions.

Under the district’s current policy, in-house suspensions are given automatically to students caught smoking inside or outside of Portsmouth High School. In 1995, the number of students who received these in-house suspensions – which require students to spend an entire school day away from classes under the student of a faculty member – was 154.

Currently students are not allowed to make up any of the class work they have missed during their in-house suspensions, and under the proposed change students would not miss any class time.

“I know this isn’t good news for parents, but I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules,” Steele said in reference to parents concerns.

Steele was not alone in viewing this policy change as something the school district needed. Local resident Bob Farley said he was in favor of the change, and hoped that this effort would get parents to take responsibility for the actions of their students.

“Parents can whine all they want about this, but maybe it’s time for parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids,” Farley said. “That’s the whole problem – parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline, so the kids have no respect for rules. Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start to wise up.”

Five students from Portsmouth High School attended and meeting and addressed concern about the proposed policy. One issue they felt still stood out was the actual enforcement of the policy.

“I think [the proposed policy is] just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week,” Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High School, said. “Anyway, what if someone skips the session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend?”

Steele explained that, in that situation where a student skips a Saturday session, “he or she would not be allowed to return to school until the detention has been served.”

Steele also noted that one of the primary reasons for this proposed policy change is deter students from smoking at school.

“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”

After about 30 minutes of discussion, the board voted 5-3, with one member abstaining, to table the issue until its next meeting on March 7. At that time Steele was instructed to return to the board with figures on in-school detentions that have taken place so far this year.

Even with the delayed until further notice, this has certainly shown to be a polarizing issue for parents and students.

“I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it – in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays,” Peggy Bacon said.